3/18/18 Senate Bill 3524, the penny per ounce tax on sugar
From Tim Bramlet ***IMPORTANT***
UPDATE – In case you didn’t catch it yet, Senate Bill 3524, the penny per ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, is posted for committee hearing in Senate Public Health for 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 19 in Room 409.
All indications are that the sponsor plans to call the bill at that time. It is still undetermined if it will be a “subject matter only” hearing, or if there will actually be a vote. If you all could take one more attempt to reach Sens. Raoul and Harris to indicate your group’s opposition, that would be terrific. And don’t forget to fill out a witness slip. There will be a roomful of proponents, so if you can stop by to help “balance out” the crowd, that would be great.
We are finalizing 3 to 4 witnesses that will be offering testimony in opposition and will circulate those names as they are nailed down.
Please call with any questions or comments. AND THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!
The web site for the Illinois Coalition Against Beverage Taxes is up and running!
With it, your members and employees can very easily access their legislators and send them a message to oppose the proposed beverage tax. All they have to do is click on the link and provide some limited information to become a “member” of the coalition.
We want to flood the General Assembly starting this week with messages from your constituents in opposition to the tax. Let’s stop this thing before it gets any momentum. I have attached a brief fact sheet which you can use, discard or modify as you see fit. The main focus is to get the link to the web site and facebook page out there so legislators hear about the overwhelming opposition to the tax…and the sooner the better.
We should know by early next week if the bill will be headed to a Senate committee, and which committee. We are targeting members of three committees to make sure we have the “No” votes to stop the tax there, and I may be contacting you to talk to some of those members later today.
Thanks for your continued help in this. And please call if you have any questions.
Regards,
Tim Bramlet
Illinois Beverage Association and Illinois Coalition Against Beverage Taxes
Oppose Senate Bill 3524 (Sen. Mattie Hunter, D-Chicago)
House Bill 5690 (Rep. Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston)
Would place a new unfair tax on the purchase of soda and other beverages
Two Illinois lawmakers have proposed imposing a tax of a penny per ounce on all sugar-sweetened beverages sold in Illinois.
Your customers would be forced to pay $1.44 more for a 12-pack of soda and up to 50 percent more for a two-liter bottle!
According to the USDA, all sugar-sweetened beverages account for only a small portion (6 percent) of calories in the average diet. Yet these lawmakers think this new tax will “end obesity.”
If we want to get serious about obesity, it starts with education – not laws and regulation.
This tax would jeopardize many good-paying jobs in the beverage industry and thousands more in retail stores and restaurants throughout our state.
Politicians should focus on what matters most – education, jobs and the economy – and let us run our own businesses.
Tell your representative and senator to do their job and leave the grocery shopping to us!
There are two things you can do to help us right away:
- like us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/NoIllinoisBeverageTax
- sign the petition and send an email to your legislator at: http://www.noilbeveragetax.com/